Lactose-free milk has become increasingly popular as a large part of the world population is Lactose Intolerant (humans unable to metabolize Lactose naturally present in milk). This problem is caused by the absence of a digestive enzyme that breaks down Lactose, which is also known as milk sugar. When a person who suffers from Lactose Intolerance ingests Lactose-laden products such as milk, the Lactose passes undigested into the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Bacteria populations, naturally resident in the lower GI tract, digest the Lactose and produce gas as a byproduct of the digestion. The gas production causes bloating and painful cramping in the host individual.
To address this issue, manufacturers chemically alter Lactose with an enzyme, lactase, that chemically cleaves the disaccharide Lactose sugar into its two constituent simple sugars or monosaccharides, Glucose and Galactose. These simple sugars do not require additional processing as the intestinal tracks of Lactose-intolerant individuals can absorb the monosaccharides directly into the bloodstream. These monosaccharides make milk taste sweeter as the monosaccharides bind differently to sweetness receptors on tongues. Although sweeter tasting, Lactose-free milk contains the same calories as Lactose-laden milk since the monosaccharides remain in the milk. Moreover, use of lactase requires an additional twenty hours of incubation to complete the hydrolysis process at 40° F. Manufacturers have tried to address these issue with purely mechanical means and with a modified combination of mechanical and chemical means to produce low-calorie, Lactose-free milk products.
With respect to a purely mechanical means of removing Lactose, filtration has been used to separate Lactose from other milk components. Lactose-free skim milk prepared by Ultra-Filtration (UF) alone has long been popular with manufacturers of reduced-carbohydrate foods and beverages as a versatile ingredient that can offer more protein, calcium and potassium without Lactose. To create UF skim milk, processors pass skim milk through a membrane that separates components by molecular size. Smaller molecules, e.g., Lactose, soluble minerals and water, pass through the membrane while larger molecules, e.g., casein and whey proteins, are retained. It is this retained material that constitutes UF skim milk. Unfortunately, apart from removing Lactose, this process also removes some important milk components beneficial to human health. These Lactose-reduced products often are fortified with minerals and vitamins to replace the removed nutrients. By removing Lactose with filtration, the calories associated with Lactose also are removed. Milk and milk products produced in this manner are lower in calories, but are not as sweet as unfiltered milk. The filtration process, however, is imperfect and does not remove all the Lactose, which does not solve the problem faced by Lactose-intolerant individuals that consume milk.
To eliminate any Lactose remaining in the UF milk after the UF filtration process, a chemical process is applied after the mechanical filtration process. The remaining Lactose is hydrolyzed with the lactase enzyme into the previously described monosaccharides. The need for an enzyme to breakdown the Lactose adds a significant cost and previously noted time component to the production of Lactose-free milk. In addition, because the monosaccharides remain in the finished milk-based product, the calories associated with Lactose via the simple sugar components of Lactose also remain. This means that the conventional methods used to eliminate Lactose during Lactose-free milk production do not eliminate the calories associated with Lactose.
Ultra-filtered (UF) milk, processed using conventional methods, is used to produce popular new dairy-based products and dairy-based foods and beverages that are higher in protein, calcium, potassium, and lower in carbohydrates. Notably, there are low-calorie versions of Lactose-free milk, but these products involve the removal of other high caloric components of whole milk other than Lactose, or its monosaccharide components. As explained, in conventional UF milk, the Lactose is partially filtered out and any remaining Lactose is reduced to its two simple sugar components with lactase and not removed from the final product. Currently, low-calorie, Lactose-free skim milk used for these products must be imported into the Western Hemisphere from Spain, Finland or India as there are no current commercial producers for this milk product in the Western Hemisphere. What is needed and what we have created is a low-cost, enzyme-free process to eliminate Lactose in milk and the calories in milk derived from Lactose.
Another problem associated with skim milk products and milk products in general is the presence of phosphorus. For individuals with compromised health, and compromised kidneys in particular, the presence of phosphorus in beverage and food products can be life threatening when the kidneys are not able to filter out and remove the phosphorus. Currently, there are no Phosphorus-reduced milk products commercially available anywhere in the world. What is needed and what we have created is a second process that may be used alone, or in combination with the Lactose removal process, to significantly reduce the presence of phosphorus in milk. Milk, when properly prepared and processed in accordance with the disclosure herein, is advantageous for special consumption by individuals suffering from advanced kidney disease that require lower phosphorus content in consumed milk products.
Collectively, what is needed and what we have developed are relatively low-cost Lactose and phosphorus removal processes that eliminate the need to hydrolyze Lactose and that produce collectively a very low-calorie, skim milk digestible by Lactose-intolerant individuals and/or by those unable to metabolize phosphorus. Separately, each process can be used to produce either low calorie, Lactose-free skim milk, or skim milk with low phosphorous content. These and other objects of the disclosure will become apparent from consideration of the following summary and detailed description sections of the disclosure.